The Peace Corps

Coyne Babbles On About Christmas In Ethiopia Doug Kiker was from Griffin, Georgia and had early success as a short story writer while still a student at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, majoring in English. There’s a story about how he wanted to get published and he picked up Martha Foley’s short stories collection, went to the rear of the book and found the list of short-story publishers, closed his eyes and punched in the dark. He hit the Yale Review, to which he promptly submitted a short story. And they accepted his story. While still in college he worked as a reporter, covering the Senate race between Strom Thurmond and Olin Johnston. After college he joined the navy and was commissioned an Ensign, serving in Korean War. Discharged, he returned to Atlanta and worked at the Atlanta Journal and covered the first sit-ins at lunch counters in North Carolina. Out of . . .

Doing the Blitz Peace Corps Recruitment in the ’60s by Hal Fleming (Staff: PC/W 1966–68; CD Cote d’Ivoire 1968–72) IN 1966, I CAME DOWN TO WASHINGTON from New York. It was a time in our country when the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War divided the nation. I had been tapped to work as a staff member in the Public Affairs and Recruiting office for the Peace Corps. On my very first work day in Peace Corps/Washington, I was told to join Warren Wiggins, the Deputy Director of the Agency, in his government car for a one-hour ride to a conference for new campus recruiters at Tidewater Inn in Easton, Maryland. Wiggins, preoccupied with his opening speech to the conclave, said very little to me except to read out a phrase or two of buzz-word laden prose, mostly unintelligible to me as the new guy, and ask for my . . .

  Remembering Joe Kauffman and the Early Days of Peace Corps Training by Ted Vestal (Staff: PC/Washington & Ethiopia APCD 1963–66)   JOSEPH KAUFFMAN, ONE OF THE founding hands of the Peace Corps died September 29, 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin. From 1961–1963, Joe was the first Director of Training at a time when no one knew what a Peace Corps was supposed to be — much less how to train Volunteers. In the old Peace Corps Headquarters at 806 Connecticut Avenue, he ran a respected Division staffed by some well-degreed, experienced former university professors and administrators. They worked on a crash basis primarily with colleges and universities which at the time had not had much experience in training Americans to work overseas. The Training Division’s activities were informed by a series of conferences the Peace Corps had held in 1961 on how to train Volunteers for service in particular nations . . .

  For a short period of time in the very first years of the Peace Corps all Volunteers were given booklockers by the agency. The lockers were meant to provide leisure reading for the PCVs and then to be left behind in schools, villages, and towns where they served. There is some mystery as to who first thought of the lockers and one story has it that the idea came from Sarge Shriver’s wife, Eunice. From my research, this seems to be a true story.  Also from my research, I learned that the first locker was put together by a young Foreign Service officer. A second selection was done in 1964, and that same year Jack Prebis was made responsible for the 3rd edition of the locker that was assembled in the fall and winter of 1965. Here is Jack’s account of putting together the third edition of the legendary . . .

Dear Friends: If you’ve been following National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and opening my steady stream of emails, you know that there is an unprecedented sense of urgency to NPCA’s mission. With that in mind, I’m going to ask you to consider making NPCA a priority for your personal philanthropy this giving season. Over the last four years, I’ve had the privilege to lead NPCA through a historic transition from a passive alumni association to a community-driven social impact organization. As we became increasingly cause-oriented, we eliminated membership dues, understanding that our community is less inclined to pay-to-join but deeply committed to engage and invest in the causes that are near and dear to our hearts. It was the right move. Since 2015, the level of Peace Corps community engagement in our three strategic priorities— advocacy, community-building, and development impact — has surged. In the process, we built a better . . .

Congress has passed and the President has signed a CR – Continuing Resolution- to fund the federal government until December 22, 2017.  It is hoped that Congress will by that time  have  passed a budget for FY2018 or a CR for a longer period of time.  Peace Corps has, however, issued its plan if there is a government shutdown on December 22, 2017.  Peace Corps plans to keep Volunteers and Trainees in place overseas and fund all those activities necessary to guarantee the health and safety of serving Volunteers and Trainees. Peace Corps will furlough employees involved in non-essential services.  Here is the link to the Peace Corps Plan: https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.peacecorps.gov/documents/open-government/Peace_Corps_Operations_Plan_in_the_Absence_of_Appropriations.pdf   

  National Peace Corps Association and the Peace Corps community mourn the passing of Roger Landrum (Nigeria 1961-63), who died early on Saturday, December 9, at his Washington, D.C. home following a brief illness. Roger was a central figure in the creation of what is now the National Peace Corps Association.  In his career in Washington, D.C. Landrum also became a leader in the national service movement, becoming the founding president of Youth Service America and the later Youth Service International. For several decades Roger worked closely with the Ford, Kellogg, and Mott foundations, and other philanthropies that supported non-government movement to offer voluntary community service in programs modeled after the Peace Corps. He worked closely with other champions of national service, including Senator Harris Wofford and Father Theodore Hesburgh. Roger was dedicated to the notion that all young people find their voice, take action, and make an impact on vital community issues. He . . .

Jesus Was Arrest in Mexico City and Missed the Wedding by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) CreateSpace Publisher September 2017 Paperback $13.95 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1963-65) Chucho, alias Jesus, makes a simple but beautiful wedding into possible jail time in Mexico City…DF to locals. But this isn’t the plot, but the title that grabs you before you know what course to take. I have to admit I couldn’t put  Jesus Was Arrest in Mexico City and Missed the Wedding down. Lawrence had me by the “tostones.” And I don’t mean platanos! I read this awesome little book as an introduction to traditional Mexico, or Mejico…Weddings are extremely important to Mexican women, very! In Mexico, any unmarried female over 30 is considered yesterday’s tortilla! And Mexican traditions are not just this generation, but the time of Pancho Villa, to the Aztecs when they fought Cortez while he and Spain were stealing . . .

  Dear John, The death of W. Marvin Watson on November 26, 2017 is an opportunity for the Peace Corps community to remember him, and, of course, President Johnson with gratitude.  The November 29, 2017 New York Times obituary describes him as President Johnson’s “Unofficial Chief of Staff.” The 1961-66 Peace Corps specifically did not want to have an office charged with “security” issues.  So, the General Counsel’s office handled liaison with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, the Civil Service Commission investigators, and so forth. When I was General Counsel of the Peace Corps and Sarge was preoccupied with OEO, but still Peace Corps Director, J. Edgar Hoover, through the FBI’s liaison to the Peace Corps, requested from me access to the personal records, including medical histories, of all Peace Corps volunteers.  This was a generalized demand, not related to a particular person or incident. I refused, citing . . .

Peace Corps Test In the early days of the Peace Corps there was a Placement Test given to all applicants. Actually it was two tests. A 30-minute General Aptitude Test and a 30-minute Modern Language Aptitude Test. The areas of testing were in Verbal Aptitude, Agriculture, English, Health Sciences, Mechanical Skills, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, World History, Literature, United States History and Institutions, and Modern Language Aptitude. One-hour achievement tests in French and Spanish were also offered during the second hour. The instruction pamphlet that accompanied the tests said that the results would be used “to help find the most appropriate assignment for each applicant.” For those who missed the opportunity to take the tests, which were given in the early days of the agency, I am including a few of the questions. Let’s see if you could still get into the Peace Corps. Verbal Aptitude The question below consists . . .

Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) has recently been asked by Densho.org, the preeminent website on the incarceration of Japanese Americans, to write a short biography of Mary Mon Toy.  As a result of working with them on it, they have asked Marnie to digitize all of her archive on Mary Mon. Below is a brief overview by Marnie of Mary Mon Toy’s life. Singer and showgirl best known for her comedic role as Minnie Ho in The World of Suzie Wong on Broadway. Mary Mon Toy’s career was begun and forged after her incarceration in the Minidoka concentration camp. Her love of singing and her need to prove to herself that she had not been destroyed by what she’d been through spurred her to fulfill a youthful dream of becoming an opera singer. Like many Nisei, she reentered America with a determination to succeed. Early Life and Wartime Incarceration Born Mary Teruko Watanabe on June 3, . . .

Press Release Peace Corps to Move to New Headquarters in Washington’s NoMa District in 2020 WASHINGTON – Today (December 4, 2017) the Peace Corps announced that the federal agency, which sends Americans with a passion for service abroad on behalf of the United States to work with communities and create lasting change, will move to a new headquarters building in Washington in 2020. The General Services Administration (GSA) announced the award of a new lease at 1275 First Street N.E. (One Constitution Square) on behalf of the Peace Corps.After two decades of occupancy in a 20th Street building in the Central Business District, the Peace Corps will gain efficiency by joining other federal agencies in the burgeoning NoMa district. “The new, modern headquarters will enhance our agency’s efficiency and productivity,” Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer Sheila Crowley said. “The NoMa building is Platinum LEED certified and will include much-needed conferencing facilities, teaming rooms, and media . . .

Thanks to a ‘Heads Up’ from Alana DeJoseph (Mali 1992–94) Producer & Director  –  “A Towering Task” I received this following letter from Susan Garrett Rickert. Dear Peace Corps, From 1964-66 I taught a secondary all-girls school in Kidugala, Tanzania. It was a life transforming experience. In the year 2000, I decided to return to Tanzania and see if it still called my name. At the end of two weeks of in-country travel, I visited a primary school in Karatu that was badly in need of help. I and my group of 12 travelers then decided to donate money to repair the roofs of 3 classrooms. I returned to Karatu the following year to see the results. I have been returning every year since. I continue to help three primary schools, and in 2005 I helped found a secondary school in the same village where there was no secondary school. Now, over . . .